This multidiscipline study of human salivary proteins proposes to accomplish the following: (1) Characterize the biochemical and immunologic structures of several polymorphic salivary proteins by employing well-established biochemical and immunologic tools (Project #1). (2) Determine the number of gene loci controlling these salivary protein polymorphism and establish their mode of inheritance, linkage relationships and population frequencies. This will be accomplished by making family studies of the protein phenotypes and by employing standard genetic segregation and linkage analyses to the data (Project #2). (3) Determine the clinical significance of these salivary protein polymorphisms by looking for an association of specific alleles with the oral diseases dental caries and periodontal disease (Project #3).